Romeo officials are investigating possible uses for the now empty Romeo Fire Hall on Rawles Street.

During the Jan. 14 Romeo Village Council meeting, Clerk Marian McLaughlin and President Mike Lee requested the board begin thinking about possible uses for the facility as the Bruce/Romeo Fire Department has moved its equipment and personnel out of that building and into the new station on Gates Street.

Trustee Matt Edwards said he is aware of businesses that have expressed interest in the location.

“I know people right now who have talked to me who are more than willing to use it as a garage for their trucks and things like that, and rent the place for a viable rate,” said Edwards. “There are commercial entities out there that have already started thinking about that themselves.”

Advertisement

McLaughlin said the fire hall is zoned for central business, which could restrict what kinds of businesses could use that facility.

“If it is car repair or something like that, it would have to go in the general commercial,” she said. “You could look what proposals are coming before you.”

McLaughlin said now that the village has two vacant buildings, the other being the former WBRW building on Morton, she would like to see the board move quickly in making a decision.

“Please try to come up with some ideas on what we can utilize, or people that have proposals, that we can make some money off of the building,” said McLaughlin. “If you don’t sell it, I would ask that we lease it for more than $1 a year.”

McLaughlin said if the village was to sell the building it would need an appraisal and very likely some maintenance work.

Lee said in the meantime he wants the board to start thinking about how to move forward.

“Think about what we want to do with it,” said Lee. “We brought to the council before what to do with the WBRW building and that is what we did. We had an idea - the police force. They spent a couple bucks in drawing up some plans and they brought that to us.”

Lee said on Jan. 21 he was able to tour the building with officials from Bruce Township and there are items the village council will need to address.

“It’s a phenomenal building,” he said. “There are huge amounts of space on the ground floor, double doors.”